1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printer, especially an ink jet printer which facilitates a key operation necessary for a replacement action for any of ink cartridges mounted on a carriage.
2. Related Art of the Invention
Generally, an ink jet printer with ink cartridges mounted on a carriage has an opening formed in an outer case over the entire range of movement of the carriage. When any of the ink cartridges is to be replaced, the old ink cartridge can be detached from, and a new one can be mounted on, the carriage through the opening. For replacement of the ink cartridge, the carriage mounted with all ink cartridges and a print head is moved to a position opposed to a part of the opening.
After the ink cartridge is replaced, a purging treatment for sucking ink from the print head side by use of a negative pressure must be performed to guide ink in the new ink cartridge to the print head.
The carriage movement and purging treatment before and after replacement of the ink cartridge, respectively, are carried out by operating keys provided on a printer body by a user. This type of printer, however, is limited in the number of operation keys to save the manufacturing cost, and assigns a plurality of functions to a single key. Thus, key operation includes a complicated task of, say, pushing two keys simultaneously, raising the possibility of a wrong operation. The user has to do such a complicated task while consulting a manual, and finds it tiresome.